.3 Brains

In the 1970's the thing that we learned which still have, by and large, to be applied in school is something called left brain right brain research. That was really primitive, which was kind of the first wave of knowledge about the brain and it turns out that we have two hemispheres in our brain and they are primarily used for different kinds of things. The left brain is the really organized part of the brain, and the right brain is sort of the touchy-feely visual part of the brain that is much more ideologically creative. When we learned about left brain/right brain research, not only was it interesting that different parts of our brains are used for different things, which were just half if what we know now. Now we use very sophisticated CAT scans and we can go in and find specific places in the brain that help us understand specific kinds of things. Basically you put your head in this oven and they show you different kinds of pictures and depending on the types of emotions those pictures evoke, different parts of the brain fire. Different parts of the brain are used for different parts of the thinking process. We are getting very sophisticated in terms of what we know. But in the 1970's we learned, for example, that there is a real relationship between the left brain and the right brain. There is a real energy that is transformed if you learn things precisely. This helps you learn things in terms of artistic and emotional pursuits. If you learn things emotionally and artistically it helps you with scientific and rational reasoning and your verbal skills, so there is synergism. Now take what we learned in the 70's about that synergism, which would mean that if you really want to train top notch scientists, then you need to give them more art and music and drama. Have we done that? No, we've gone the other way. We still think of the arts in general as frills because the public has never been effectively instructed about the synergism between the left and right side of the brain. So there we sit with this knowledge that has been there for a long time but it certainly hasn't gotten into the schools. I would guess that since 1985 what we now know about the brain is probably 99 percent of what we have learned since 1985, but the point is that it escalates. The rate at which we are discovering information is getting faster and faster. Equally important, little has changed in what we teach concerning the brain. You wouldn't know that we have had all this new information about the brain given what goes on in school. One of my favorites, which I keep mentioning, is the fact that brain research says that happy brains learn better than sad brains or angry brains, but schools don't pay all that much attention to creating happy brains, they just don't give that a high priority. This is in spite of the fact that we know better; we know that the school would be more effective.
Let's go back to some of things we talked about in terms of the philosophy of education. I would argue that your philosophical position would have a real impact on the way that you would treat the knowledge about the brain. For example, if you were a progressivist you would think that we, as educators, have the responsibility of helping kids learn and, if we know that happy brains learn better than sad brains or angry brains, then we as progressivists would accept the responsibility to help kids have happy brains. Now if you were an essentialist, you would think that kids are on their own. It's their problem. It is our problem to present the information, it is their problem in terms of what they do with it. So you see the facts: there are happy brains out there to be had, which is an interesting thing to know, but that and fifty cents will buy you a cup of coffee. The school doesn't have any obligation to worry about happy brains, the kids are on their own for that. Again just reminding you that your philosophy of education is going to influence the way you deal with the information that becomes available.

How do schools use the latest discoveries in brain research?

Mrs. Wilson is a seventh-grade English teacher that teaches 120 students throughout seven periods of the day. She notices that one of her students, Karen, comes to school and does well on her assignments in class but never retains the knowledge from her classes. She also seems to be very unhappy almost all of the time. What can Mrs. Wilson do to make Karen a better learner?